birchman:Speedofdarkness: EnviroDude: It would not shock me if the perp was his lover

Came in here to say this. My guess is love triangle gone wrong.

Any reason why this your guess? Or is it just what you WANT to be the truth, despite having no evidence whatsoever about a possible motive?

I agree. It is disgusting that somebody would assume he was killed in an act of domestic violence without proof. If a person has any empathy, they should be assuming that he was killed because of his race or sexual orientation without proof.

Hobo Jr.: It is more like the neighbor from hell. Really polite but they have a slutty daughter who brings home shady guys, a son who sells drugs and not the good kind, they let their dog run loose in the neighborhood and it ain't friendly. They park in the yard and have family fights in the driveway.

SuperNinjaToad:contrary to popular belief majority of African Americans (regardless of political affiliations) are even less tolerant than 'white conservatives' when it comes to teh 'gay'.

Yea it is pretty screwed up. Most of the young people I know are very accepting of gay or lesbian people. Older people not so much. But some of my young, African American friends are the ones most vocal about 'It is wrong to be gay. Gay marriage is wrong. It should be illegal.'

If I say 'uh, well people used to think interracial marriage was wrong and should be illegal. What do you think about that?'

Of course I also have black friends who *are* gay but I don't know a lot of gay-accepting conservatives...

umad:birchman: Speedofdarkness: EnviroDude: It would not shock me if the perp was his lover

Came in here to say this. My guess is love triangle gone wrong.

Any reason why this your guess? Or is it just what you WANT to be the truth, despite having no evidence whatsoever about a possible motive?

I agree. It is disgusting that somebody would assume he was killed in an act of domestic violence without proof. If a person has any empathy, they should be assuming that he was killed because of his race or sexual orientation without proof.

DoBeDoBeDo:Gay and Black in Mississippi? Are you sure we aren't jumping to conclusions on that "murdered" thing? He very well have committed sucide.

/tied himself up and shot himself twice in the head, then jumped in the lake

I know I may take crap for this--but I'm pretty apprehensive about jumping to conclusions here as well--specifically after Trayvon Martin and Tyler Clementi and the media narratives on them. I'd never be dumb enough to believe the "liberal media" nonsense conservatives spew about reporting, but those two stories really weren't reported honestly--they were reported as though they fit the narrative of the worst possible situation that would stereotypically happen to a person of each of those cultural categories.

Benjamin Orr:umad: birchman: Speedofdarkness: EnviroDude: It would not shock me if the perp was his lover

Came in here to say this. My guess is love triangle gone wrong.

Any reason why this your guess? Or is it just what you WANT to be the truth, despite having no evidence whatsoever about a possible motive?

I agree. It is disgusting that somebody would assume he was killed in an act of domestic violence without proof. If a person has any empathy, they should be assuming that he was killed because of his race or sexual orientation without proof.

Or political party

Your points might be more valid if you had any knowledge about relationships he was in to form a basis for your claim. Those who are suggesting racial/homophobic/political motives are doing so because of past precedence of bias towards his affiliations in those categories in that geographical region. You, however, are just blindly guessing with no knowledge of the situation regarding his personal relationships. Nice try though.

I will note though that I have myself made no assumption as to what I think happened, I'm just heading off your predictable comeback of "why aren't you calling those people out too, you must agree with them". They just have a valid basis for their claim, you have nothing.

Oldiron_79:I cant wait till this ends up being a robbery or a lovers quarrel and all these people foaming at the mouth about zomfg racism KKK wargarbl are proven wrong, then exactly 0 of them own up to it.

CNN spoke with the candidate's mother, Patricia McMillian, who wanted to dispel some speculation that her son's death has anything to do with his sexual orientation. "He did not announce in public that he was gay," she told CNN. "I don't think he was attacked because he was gay."

birchman:Benjamin Orr: umad: birchman: Speedofdarkness: EnviroDude: It would not shock me if the perp was his lover

Came in here to say this. My guess is love triangle gone wrong.

Any reason why this your guess? Or is it just what you WANT to be the truth, despite having no evidence whatsoever about a possible motive?

I agree. It is disgusting that somebody would assume he was killed in an act of domestic violence without proof. If a person has any empathy, they should be assuming that he was killed because of his race or sexual orientation without proof.

Or political party

Your points might be more valid if you had any knowledge about relationships he was in to form a basis for your claim. Those who are suggesting racial/homophobic/political motives are doing so because of past precedence of bias towards his affiliations in those categories in that geographical region. You, however, are just blindly guessing with no knowledge of the situation regarding his personal relationships. Nice try though.

I will note though that I have myself made no assumption as to what I think happened, I'm just heading off your predictable comeback of "why aren't you calling those people out too, you must agree with them". They just have a valid basis for their claim, you have nothing.

I just posted something about that. The worst case scenario fits the narrative of people that are critical of this region of the country. It doesn't make it impossible, but can we at least wait until we know it is actually true until we start calling for someone's head?

Oldiron_79:I cant wait till this ends up being a robbery or a lovers quarrel and all these people foaming at the mouth about zomfg racism KKK wargarbl are proven wrong, then exactly 0 of them own up to it.

That'll show them! Maybe you can have a trophy made for your mantle when you are right about something that you are just guessing about and have no personal knowledge of. Truly something to treasure and share with the grandkids someday, when you made an undeducated assumption on the internet and ended up being right in that cold winter of 2013.

Elegy:Erix: I'd be curious to see how incarceration rates look when racial distribution is taken into consideration. That is, if the states with the disproportionate incarcerations rates also happen to have well mixed populations across the state, or if minorities are almost entirely confined to the cities.

I think you really hit the nail on the head with that comment. I see two reasons as to why institutional racism is greater in the north, than in the south. The first is blacks aren't confined to urban areas like they are in the north. Mississippi is 37.7% black, and in many geographical areas (like the delta) blacks are the majority population. Since desegregation, blacks have made great inroads in local governance in these areas - mayors, police, commissioners, judges, etc. In addition to this, Mississippi has had a long history of dealing with (in the political give-and-take sense, not the authoritarian sense) the black population, whereas in the north blacks inhabit the inner-city ghetto and that's it. The net result is that the system in the south is better adjusted to treating black offenders fairly - although, as I said above, the system still pretty much sucks for blacks everywhere. It just sucks less in the south than elsewhere.

Well, that's one possibility, but that's not really where I was going with that. If cities in general have higher incarceration rates than rural and suburban areas, regardless of race, and if minorities in some states are far more likely to be found in cities than outside of cities, than it would follow that minorities would likely have higher incarceration rates in those states. States with more evenly mixed populations wouldn't have the same pattern if the racial composition inside and outside of the cities is much closer. This doesn't necessarily point to any inherent institutionalized racism.

birchman:Oldiron_79: I cant wait till this ends up being a robbery or a lovers quarrel and all these people foaming at the mouth about zomfg racism KKK wargarbl are proven wrong, then exactly 0 of them own up to it.

That'll show them! Maybe you can have a trophy made for your mantle when you are right about something that you are just guessing about and have no personal knowledge of. Truly something to treasure and share with the grandkids someday, when you made an undeducated assumption on the internet and ended up being right in that cold winter of 2013.

Trophy? If I do something like that id have like a rasslin championship belt made so I could wear it to a fark party sometime.

FormlessOne:Oldiron_79: I cant wait till this ends up being a robbery or a lovers quarrel and all these people foaming at the mouth about zomfg racism KKK wargarbl are proven wrong, then exactly 0 of them own up to it.

Sure - it could happen. Hey, we just had a Republican Congresscritter apologize for being a jingoist moron just a day or so ago. Stranger things have happened.

Numerous people have pointed out that the guy is from an area where african americans are the majority and he's running for office in a city that already has a black mayor and black county commissioners, yet since it is Mississippi, he was clearly killed because he's black.

The strange thing will be if the motive for his killing wasn't plain robbery or some sort of domestic or affinity crime.

Amos Quito:Oldiron_79: I cant wait till this ends up being a robbery or a lovers quarrel and all these people foaming at the mouth about zomfg racism KKK wargarbl are proven wrong, then exactly 0 of them own up to it.

CNN spoke with the candidate's mother, Patricia McMillian, who wanted to dispel some speculation that her son's death has anything to do with his sexual orientation. "He did not announce in public that he was gay," she told CNN. "I don't think he was attacked because he was gay."

It begins...

So she says he didn't announce he was gay, and yet every single story says he was openly so and include quotes about him from various LGBT groups? Mom in denial?

Oh, and the guy in custody is 22 and was caught when he wrecked the dead guy's SUV.

LavenderWolf:WTF Indeed: Weaver95: gay AND black? yeah...he was pushing it a bit far for that area of the country.

Walker: I'm surprised they let him live this long. This IS Mississippi we're talking about.

AirForceVet: Glad to see this story green-lighted. I submitted it under another source, so-so headline.

Clarksdale, MS: Home of the Delta Blues. Where the population is 54% black, the current mayor is black, and two of the four commissoners are black is a bastion of southern racism.

Listen, nobody's racist like the south.

The problem is, white people hear that as "White southerners are racist!" when, really, I mean that about the South as a whole. Southern whites, and blacks, and latinos, and pretty much everyone there are far more racist than here in Canada or what my experiences in the northern US tell me it is like there. Southern whites and blacks have so much more animosity towards each other in the south than in the north. It was downright frightening to see literally visible animosity between total strangers.

IMHE Southerners are much more polite about being racist. Racist Northern cities? Pittsburg and Detroit, hands down.

That said, my money is on a lover's quarrel or somesuch, or maybe he was just uppity.

JustGetItRight:So she says he didn't announce he was gay, and yet every single story says he was openly so and include quotes about him from various LGBT groups? Mom in denial?

Can't he be openly gay without making a public announcement? What if he's just been out forever and everybody knew it and nobody cared or even remembered when they first knew he was gay because it was irrelevant?

Erix:Elegy: Erix: I'd be curious to see how incarceration rates look when racial distribution is taken into consideration. That is, if the states with the disproportionate incarcerations rates also happen to have well mixed populations across the state, or if minorities are almost entirely confined to the cities.

I think you really hit the nail on the head with that comment. I see two reasons as to why institutional racism is greater in the north, than in the south. The first is blacks aren't confined to urban areas like they are in the north. Mississippi is 37.7% black, and in many geographical areas (like the delta) blacks are the majority population. Since desegregation, blacks have made great inroads in local governance in these areas - mayors, police, commissioners, judges, etc. In addition to this, Mississippi has had a long history of dealing with (in the political give-and-take sense, not the authoritarian sense) the black population, whereas in the north blacks inhabit the inner-city ghetto and that's it. The net result is that the system in the south is better adjusted to treating black offenders fairly - although, as I said above, the system still pretty much sucks for blacks everywhere. It just sucks less in the south than elsewhere.

Well, that's one possibility, but that's not really where I was going with that. If cities in general have higher incarceration rates than rural and suburban areas, regardless of race, and if minorities in some states are far more likely to be found in cities than outside of cities, than it would follow that minorities would likely have higher incarceration rates in those states. States with more evenly mixed populations wouldn't have the same pattern if the racial composition inside and outside of the cities is much closer. This doesn't necessarily point to any inherent institutionalized racism.

Sorry, I do see where you are going with it now. And to some degree, I think that the logic of a rural/urban split in crime rates could account for some of that variation.

I would reply, however, that:

1) Some of the most egregiously unbalanced sentencing is done is predominately rural states lacking large urban populations. South Dakota, Utah, and Montana, are examples.

2) Your five most unbalanced states are (numbers represent black/white incarceration ratio)Iowa13.6Vermont12.5New Jersey12.4Connecticut12.0Wisconsin10.6

While your five most balanced are:Hawaii1.9Georgia3.3Mississippi3.5Alabama3.5Arkansas3.9

Given that New Jersey is only 13% black and Vermont is only 0.89% black, there is a MASSIVE disparity in incarceration rates to explain away. Black folks are also concentrated in inner cities in the south, ya know, that's not an exclusively northern phenomenon.

3) Hispanics are also sentenced at a disproportionately higher rate in essentially the same pattern - incarceration rates only run about 6 times that of whites, but yet again the worst offenders are in the North: Connecticut, Massachutes, Pennsylvania, etc.

4) and finally, wouldn't the extreme geographical segregation in the north (black in the cities, whites elsewhere) itself point to widespread institutional racism?

BizarreMan:JustGetItRight: So she says he didn't announce he was gay, and yet every single story says he was openly so and include quotes about him from various LGBT groups? Mom in denial?

Can't he be openly gay without making a public announcement? What if he's just been out forever and everybody knew it and nobody cared or even remembered when they first knew he was gay because it was irrelevant?

You're quite possibly right, but if everyone knew and considered it irrelevant why is it important to the headline?

MaliFinn:JustGetItRight: And amazingly according to mugshots.com, he's a black male.

What's in Shelby County, TN? Well, for starters the city of Memphis. Memphis sounds familiar, where did I hear it? That's right! The news story from the Clarion-Ledger said "Reed was airlifted to the Regional Medical Center at Memphis."

SO, I've got a guy with the same name, who is the same age, placed in custody yesterday in the jail of the same county where Mr. Reed was transported for treatment. There is also no mugshot available, which would be proper for someone arrested but not yet processed into the facility.

I'll admit it isn't a 100% guarantee, but I am feeling pretty good about my odds.

birchman:Benjamin Orr: umad: birchman: Speedofdarkness: EnviroDude: It would not shock me if the perp was his lover

Came in here to say this. My guess is love triangle gone wrong.

Any reason why this your guess? Or is it just what you WANT to be the truth, despite having no evidence whatsoever about a possible motive?

I agree. It is disgusting that somebody would assume he was killed in an act of domestic violence without proof. If a person has any empathy, they should be assuming that he was killed because of his race or sexual orientation without proof.

Or political party

Your points might be more valid if you had any knowledge about relationships he was in to form a basis for your claim. Those who are suggesting racial/homophobic/political motives are doing so because of past precedence of bias towards his affiliations in those categories in that geographical region. You, however, are just blindly guessing with no knowledge of the situation regarding his personal relationships. Nice try though.

I will note though that I have myself made no assumption as to what I think happened, I'm just heading off your predictable comeback of "why aren't you calling those people out too, you must agree with them". They just have a valid basis for their claim, you have nothing.

Mine is based on the statistics that show most people are murdered by somebody they know on a personal level and not by strangers.

Amos Quito:Elegy: 4) and finally, wouldn't the extreme geographical segregation in the north (black in the cities, whites elsewhere) itself point to widespread institutional racism?

Why?

Well, wasn't that what de jure segregation was all about? Geographical segregation - you stay on your side of town and use your facilities, and we use ours.

The continuation of exteme de facto geographical segregation of blacks in inner cities and whites in rural areas in the north suggests something larger and institutional is going on. Community redlining for mortgages, active realtor racism, etc. Contrast against a city like Atlanta where much of the black population has been moving up in economic standing and out into the suburbs in recent years. Why are populations in the north so stationary with regards to where they live?

I won't really argue the point, however, and I don't insist upon my interpretation. It was thrown out as food for thought rather than something I can back up with hard data like incarceration rates. There are many factors that result in segregation - people's preference to self-segregate and live near people with a similar outlook is one I can think of off hand that doesn't point to institutional racism. So, I might be wrong here; I am simply speculating, and I freely admit that.

Benjamin Orr:birchman: Benjamin Orr: umad: birchman: Speedofdarkness: EnviroDude: It would not shock me if the perp was his lover

Came in here to say this. My guess is love triangle gone wrong.

Any reason why this your guess? Or is it just what you WANT to be the truth, despite having no evidence whatsoever about a possible motive?

I agree. It is disgusting that somebody would assume he was killed in an act of domestic violence without proof. If a person has any empathy, they should be assuming that he was killed because of his race or sexual orientation without proof.

Or political party

Your points might be more valid if you had any knowledge about relationships he was in to form a basis for your claim. Those who are suggesting racial/homophobic/political motives are doing so because of past precedence of bias towards his affiliations in those categories in that geographical region. You, however, are just blindly guessing with no knowledge of the situation regarding his personal relationships. Nice try though.

I will note though that I have myself made no assumption as to what I think happened, I'm just heading off your predictable comeback of "why aren't you calling those people out too, you must agree with them". They just have a valid basis for their claim, you have nothing.

Mine is based on the statistics that show most people are murdered by somebody they know on a personal level and not by strangers.

How does knowing the person automatically rule out killing them for racial, political, or homophobic reasons? I mean I'm sure a lot of those crimes are committed against strangers, but it's not like it's mutually exclusive, plus this has the added complexity of him being a public figure. I'm failing to see your point...unless you're suggesting he was sleeping with every person he personally knew, in which case I'd have to ask why you think that.

Sgt Otter:Bloody William: Reverend J: theaton: Neritz: "And his worse sin of all? He was a Democrat, in Mississippi. "

Actually, being a Democrat in Mississippi is not a sin at all. The KKK was started by Democrats. Gun control was started by Democrats in an attempt to keep the black, ex-slaves unarmed and unable to protect themselves.

"Hi folks, Sen. Strom Thurmond here. In 1948, I ran for President on a platform of segregation. After I lost, I was elected to the Senate as a Democrat, where I served until 1964. In 1964, Democratic president LBJ, working with a coalition of Republicans and northern Democrats, pushed the Civil Rights Act though Congress.

That exact same year, I switched my party affiliation to Republican, along with thousands of other Dixie Democrats. For uh, no reason at all."

Elegy:Amos Quito: Elegy: 4) and finally, wouldn't the extreme geographical segregation in the north (black in the cities, whites elsewhere) itself point to widespread institutional racism?

Why?

Well, wasn't that what de jure segregation was all about? Geographical segregation - you stay on your side of town and use your facilities, and we use ours.

The continuation of exteme de facto geographical segregation of blacks in inner cities and whites in rural areas in the north suggests something larger and institutional is going on. Community redlining for mortgages, active realtor racism, etc. Contrast against a city like Atlanta where much of the black population has been moving up in economic standing and out into the suburbs in recent years. Why are populations in the north so stationary with regards to where they live?

I won't really argue the point, however, and I don't insist upon my interpretation. It was thrown out as food for thought rather than something I can back up with hard data like incarceration rates. There are many factors that result in segregation - people's preference to self-segregate and live near people with a similar outlook is one I can think of off hand that doesn't point to institutional racism. So, I might be wrong here; I am simply speculating, and I freely admit that.

/time to do a literature search, I guess.

I think that self-segregation plays a large role in the perceivable racial / ethnic "divisions" in societies. People tend to want to associate with and live near those that they perceive are "familiar" - meaning that they are more comfortable among others who they perceive to share similar characteristics, interests, etc.

It would seem to be fairly easy to design experiments to test this theory - at least on a small scale.

birchman:Benjamin Orr: birchman: Benjamin Orr: umad: birchman: Speedofdarkness: EnviroDude: It would not shock me if the perp was his lover

Came in here to say this. My guess is love triangle gone wrong.

Any reason why this your guess? Or is it just what you WANT to be the truth, despite having no evidence whatsoever about a possible motive?

I agree. It is disgusting that somebody would assume he was killed in an act of domestic violence without proof. If a person has any empathy, they should be assuming that he was killed because of his race or sexual orientation without proof.

Or political party

Your points might be more valid if you had any knowledge about relationships he was in to form a basis for your claim. Those who are suggesting racial/homophobic/political motives are doing so because of past precedence of bias towards his affiliations in those categories in that geographical region. You, however, are just blindly guessing with no knowledge of the situation regarding his personal relationships. Nice try though.

I will note though that I have myself made no assumption as to what I think happened, I'm just heading off your predictable comeback of "why aren't you calling those people out too, you must agree with them". They just have a valid basis for their claim, you have nothing.

Mine is based on the statistics that show most people are murdered by somebody they know on a personal level and not by strangers.

How does knowing the person automatically rule out killing them for racial, political, or homophobic reasons? I mean I'm sure a lot of those crimes are committed against strangers, but it's not like it's mutually exclusive, plus this has the added complexity of him being a public figure. I'm failing to see your point...unless you're suggesting he was sleeping with every person he personally knew, in which case I'd have to ask why you think that.

Sigh. I am saying he is more likely to be killed by somebody he knew than some random psycho stranger.

JACKSON, Miss. - A 22-year-old man was charged with murder Thursday in the death of a mayoral candidate in the Mississippi Delta.The Coahoma County Sheriff's Department said in a news release that Lawrence Reed of Shelby was charged in the death of Marco McMillian. McMillian, 34, was a candidate for mayor of Clarksdale and was well-known in the community and beyond.

So a young black man is exactly what all of you people were thinking about when you were blaming this on racism and politics right?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mobileweb/2013/02/28/marco-mcmillian-de a d_n_2780698.html

HMS_Blinkin:WTF Indeed: Clarksdale, MS: Home of the Delta Blues. Where the population is 54% black, the current mayor is black, and two of the four commissoners are black is a bastion of southern racism.

Benjamin Orr:HMS_Blinkin: WTF Indeed: Clarksdale, MS: Home of the Delta Blues. Where the population is 54% black, the current mayor is black, and two of the four commissoners are black is a bastion of southern racism.

But Mississippi is 37.7% black by population in 2010. In 2005 Mississippi incarcerated, per 100,000 population, at a ration of 3.5 blacks to one white.Vermont, on the other hand, was 1.1% black by population in 2011.In 2005 Vermont incarerated, per 100,000 population, at a ration of 12.5 blacks to one white.

Similarly, the highest rates of incarceration are in northern states, the lowest in southern states (and Hawaii).

Say all those convictions are justifiable and correct - an assumption the innocence project (etc.) casts into serious doubt - the question then becomes why are blacks in the north so much more violent than in the south? Shouldn't Mississippi, which has a 37.7% black population, be convicting at a rate far higher than a state that is only 1.1% black?

Amos Quito:Benjamin Orr: HMS_Blinkin: WTF Indeed: Clarksdale, MS: Home of the Delta Blues. Where the population is 54% black, the current mayor is black, and two of the four commissoners are black is a bastion of southern racism.

It only takes on racist with a gun....

Oops

A young black man murders another black man. So what?

That doesn't necessarily mean that the murderer isn't a racist.

For all we know, he may HATE white people.

He might even be like Uncle Ruckus and love Ronald Reagan and hates black people.

I was trying to find the breakdown of race for VT police.... All I could find was this from 2004

"Being in a majority non-diverse state, I think that it's going to hamper our efforts to attract qualified candidates of color," said Detective Aljaray Nails, who in 1993 became the department's first -- and still only -- black police officer.

I suspect this might have something to do with the arrest rates of minorities.

LavenderWolf:LeafyGreens: LavenderWolf: WTF Indeed: Weaver95: gay AND black? yeah...he was pushing it a bit far for that area of the country.

Walker: I'm surprised they let him live this long. This IS Mississippi we're talking about.

AirForceVet: Glad to see this story green-lighted. I submitted it under another source, so-so headline.

Clarksdale, MS: Home of the Delta Blues. Where the population is 54% black, the current mayor is black, and two of the four commissoners are black is a bastion of southern racism.

Listen, nobody's racist like the south.

The problem is, white people hear that as "White southerners are racist!" when, really, I mean that about the South as a whole. Southern whites, and blacks, and latinos, and pretty much everyone there are far more racist than here in Canada or what my experiences in the northern US tell me it is like there. Southern whites and blacks have so much more animosity towards each other in the south than in the north. It was downright frightening to see literally visible animosity between total strangers.

And you're basing this opinion off of what exactly?

Having traveled through the south, FARKing for years, etc.

Yes, it's an opinion, and it could be wrong, but that's the trend I notice.

To be fair: travelling around farking for years on end is going to give you a skewed view of things. Try shaking hands or talking to people and you might come upon a different conclusion.

birchman:Speedofdarkness: EnviroDude: It would not shock me if the perp was his lover

Came in here to say this. My guess is love triangle gone wrong.

Any reason why this your guess? Or is it just what you WANT to be the truth, despite having no evidence whatsoever about a possible motive?

Because despite all of the "Racist South Whargarble" (not to mention the 'You Northerners are Much More Racist Than Us Whargarble") going on in this thread when a murder happens it breaks down pretty much like this: 1st look to lover or spouse (especially if they have both), 2nd look to family, 3rd look to friends,... 137th look to politically motivated homophobic racist assasins. Sure it's possible some whack-job did him in for those reasons but people are pretty much the same wherever you go and they tend to whack eachother for the same reasons (sex/"love", money and insults to personal pride)

But Mississippi is 37.7% black by population in 2010. In 2005 Mississippi incarcerated, per 100,000 population, at a ration of 3.5 blacks to one white.Vermont, on the other hand, was 1.1% black by population in 2011.In 2005 Vermont incarerated, per 100,000 population, at a ration of 12.5 blacks to one white.

Similarly, the highest rates of incarceration are in northern states, the lowest in southern states (and Hawaii).

Say all those convictions are justifiable and correct - an assumption the innocence project (etc.) casts into serious doubt - the question then becomes why are blacks in the north so much more violent than in the south? Shouldn't Mississippi, which has a 37.7% black population, be convicting at a rate far higher than a state that is only 1.1% black?

Thoughts?

Thought provoking indeed.

Unfortunately at the moment I find myself befuddled, as reviewing the data @ The Sentencing Project, it would, at first blush, seem to turn all of the classic stereotypes of the South being inherently "racist" against blacks on its head, wouldn't it?

Indeed, when the above linked map is juxtaposed to the 2012 presidential election results map, it would appear that the "Progressive" Obama Blue States almost invariably incarcerate blacks at higher rates than do those "redneck backwater" Red states that voted for Romney.

This is a puzzler indeed, and I thank you for calling this disparity to my attention.

I have no theory to offer at present, but you are now favorited, and Farkied as a "reasonable and interesting" fellow, Elegy.

LovingTeacher:birchman: Speedofdarkness: EnviroDude: It would not shock me if the perp was his lover

Came in here to say this. My guess is love triangle gone wrong.

Any reason why this your guess? Or is it just what you WANT to be the truth, despite having no evidence whatsoever about a possible motive?

Because despite all of the "Racist South Whargarble" (not to mention the 'You Northerners are Much More Racist Than Us Whargarble") going on in this thread when a murder happens it breaks down pretty much like this: 1st look to lover or spouse (especially if they have both), 2nd look to family, 3rd look to friends,... 137th look to politically motivated homophobic racist assasins. Sure it's possible some whack-job did him in for those reasons but people are pretty much the same wherever you go and they tend to whack eachother for the same reasons (sex/"love", money and insults to personal pride)

Yeah, for a while there, the ant-racist anti-homophobe Farkers smelt BLOOD, and they were hot on the trail.